Rostock-Evershagen Community Outreach

Evershagen is a neighbourhood of 17,000 inhabitants in the German city of Rostock. During the days of communism this former village developed into a lively neighborhood of industrialised apartment blocks. However, it experienced a drastic decline in population after the reunification of Germany. ECM workers Gerrit and Jorine van Dijk live in Evershagen and work in partnership with a local church, the FEG Rostock. Together, they serve this neighbourhood - a community where people struggle with deprivation, addiction and isolation.

Evershagen longs for a strong and trusting community. The van Dijks and the FEG Rostock are working to build such a community, by organising weekly events and encouraging local people to take an active part in developing these events. Every Wednesday they run the 'Café for Everyone' in the market square - a pop-up café offering free tea and coffee to everyone. This provides opportunities for conversations to start and relationships to develop - everyone is invited to join in. Their weekly activities also include playing football with local teenagers (Gerrit) and running a playgroup together with the local community centre (Jorine). The vision is to build up a loving and stable community, in which people start to ask questions about God and find that the local church is ready to walk with them and share Christ's love.

This project is connected with the Fresh Expressions movement. To visit the German Fresh X website, click here (website in German).

To read more about the Rostock-Evershagen project, click here (website in English).